Lawyer Julian Burnside accuses both sides of politics of misleading the public on asylum seeker issue

Updated
Fri 19 Jul 2013, 11:02 AM AEST

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Burnside says politicians misleading asylum debate

ABC News

Human rights lawyer Julian Burnside QC has accused both major political parties of misleading the public about issues surrounding asylum seekers.

Mr Burnside told ABC News Breakfast that repeated use of terms like "illegals" and "queue jumpers" have painted asylum seekers in a threatening light.

He says Australia's reception to the "boat people" who arrived in the 1970s was vastly different due to the leadership shown by the politicians of the time.

"Everyone was hysterical about the so-called invasion of boat people," he said.

"The number who arrived in Australia in the last 12 months was slightly fewer than the number who arrived each year in the late 1970s.

"There was no fuss about it then, because [Gough] Whitlam and [Malcolm] Fraser] decided to take a bipartisan approach."

Mr Burnside criticised the Government's plan to bring the Refugee Review Tribunal under the umbrella of the Foreign Affairs portfolio, saying it could jeopardise independent assessment of asylum seekers' cases.

"[Senator] Carr will be leaning on people to call them all economic refugees," he said.

"Let me make it very clear, it is absolutely outrageous for a minister of the crown to be leaning on independent decision makers or distorting the evidence that they can work on.

"That is really, really bad form."

Mr Burnside says the Federal Government will have difficulty convincing all countries party to the United Nations' 1951 Refugee Convention to agree to any changes.

He also condemned the Coalition's suggestion for Australia to withdraw from the convention.